Digital beam-forming apparatus and technique for a multi-beam global positioning system (GPS) receiver

ABSTRACT

An advanced multiple-beam GPS receiving system is achieved that is capable of simultaneously tracking multiple GPS satellites independently, detecting multiple interference signals individually, and suppressing directional gain in the antenna pattern of each beam in the interference directions. The GPS receiving system can be used for both planar and non-planar receiving arrays, including arrays that are conformally applied to the surface of a platform such as an aircraft. The GPS receiver combines spatial filtering and acquisition code correlation for enhanced rejection of interfering sources. Enhanced gain in the direction of GPS satellites and the ability to shape the beam patterns to suppress gain in the direction of interfering sources make the GPS receiving system largely insensitive to interfering and jamming signals that plague conventional GPS receivers.

RELATED APPLICATION DATA

This application claims the benefit, pursuant to 35 U.S.C. §119(e), ofU.S. provisional application Ser. No. 60/930,954, filed May 21, 2007.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to architectures and designs of GlobalPositioning System (GPS) receiving systems. In particular, the inventionrelates to the design of multiple-beam antennas using digital beamforming techniques to enable dynamic tracking of all GPS satelliteswithin the field of view of the aperture.

2. Description of Related Art

It is well known in the art to use the NAVSTAR GPS satelliteconstellation to determine receiver location and obtain navigationinformation. The basic NAVSTAR constellation comprises twenty-foursatellites orbiting in six orbital planes. Each orbital plane isinclined with respect to the equator by fifty-five degrees, and they areseparated by sixty degrees right ascension. In each of the six orbitalplanes, four satellites are evenly spaced along a nearly circular orbit.This arrangement assures that between four and twelve satellites arevisible above an observer's horizon at any given time. However, thesatellites will be observed near the observer's horizon the majority ofthe time. FIG. 1 illustrates the relative time that a GPS satellitepassing through the local zenith will be visible as a function ofelevation angle. A user has about 40% more time to observe the GPSsatellite traveling over an elevation angle near the local horizon thanthat near the local zenith, and for satellites not reaching localzenith, the time spent near the local horizon is even greater. Forairborne receiving platforms in particular, the majority of GPS signalsarrive at low elevation angles. However, typical GPS receiving systemsemploy largely isotropic, low-gain antennas in order to simultaneouslyview large regions of the sky. Besides wasting much of the antenna gainin directions with low payoff, such isotropic receivers also increasethe system's susceptibility to interference signals, especially duringaircraft final approach and landing. Therefore, it would be desirable todesign antennas for receiving GPS signals that exhibit betterdirectional gain and that are better able to discriminate toward lowelevation angles.

The low broadcast power of GPS signals makes them susceptible tointerference. The interference/signal (I/S) power ratio is a function ofthe distance and transmission power of the interfering source. Becausethe current generation of GPS terminals relies on using the relativelysusceptible coarse acquisition (C/A) code for signal acquisition,receivers are readily disabled by interfering sources. Even low-powerinterfering sources can have a drastic effect on GPS receivers at asignificant distance from the interfering source. Conventional low-gainantennas cannot discriminate between GPS signal sources and interferingsources. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a receiving antennasystem that could dynamically provide gain in the direction of thedesired GPS sources while suppressing interfering sources by suppressingantenna gain in the directions of the interfering sources.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

An advanced multiple-beam GPS receiving system is achieved that iscapable of enhancing receiving sensitivity in the direction of GPSsources using multiple dynamic narrow beams with high gain, detectingmultiple interference signals individually, and simultaneouslysuppressing gain in the antenna patterns of the multiple beams in thedirections of interfering sources. The receiving antenna comprises anarray of antenna elements that need not be co-planar. Key factors in theperformance of the array include the number of antenna elements and thespacing (base-lines) of the elements. As the number of elementsincreases, more control over the shaping of the antenna patterns isachieved. The number of separate interfering sources that can besuppressed by pattern shaping is equal to one less than the number of“available” elements (N−1). The angular width of the suppressionfeatures depends on the overall aperture size, and more precisely, onthe maximum distance (base-line) between array elements.

It is desirable to maintain a small aperture size for a user terminal,but with better antenna gain toward GPS satellites and discriminationagainst interferences at low elevations. A receiving system inaccordance with the present invention produces multiple high-gain spotbeams from a GPS receiving array by using digital beam forming (DBF)techniques. The system provides multiple, simultaneous anti-interferencelinks between GPS satellites and the user. The multi-beam antenna notonly provides connectivity but also ensures isolation from anddiscrimination against interference sources, particularly at lowelevation angles. The multi-beam antenna receiving system addresseschallenges in three key areas: (1) keeping aperture sizes small, (2)dynamically maximizing gain in the direction of low-elevation GPSsatellites, and (3) dynamically forming deep gain suppression featuresin the direction of low-elevation interference sources while minimizingimpacts on GPS satellite reception.

An embodiment of a GPS receiving system in accordance with the presentinvention comprises an aperture composed of multiple antenna elementsconfigured as a receiving array. The array may be configured as acontiguous, planar aperture, or as a non-planar, non-contiguous arraycomprised of distributed sections. In particular, the aperture could bedistributed as multiple arrays applied conformally to the surface of aplatform such as an aircraft or other vehicle. The receiving systemincludes a low-noise amplifier (LNA) section to amplify and conditionthe received low-intensity GPS signals, and a down-conversion section tofrequency down-convert the received GPS radio-frequency signals to anintermediate or baseband frequency for further processing. A digitalbeam forming (DBF) processor applies appropriate beam weighting vectorsto the signals received from each of the elements of the array to createone or more coherent beams from the received GPS signals. All of theelements may be combined into a single broad-area beam, or multiplesimultaneous high-gain beams covering the same broad area.Alternatively, various selected elements may be combined to formdifferent simultaneous beams, each of which may be independently steeredby the array processor. The DBF processor employs digital numericaltechniques to generate a beam by multiplying, or weighting, each of thesignals received from the elements of the antenna array. Each signal ismultiplied by the associated component of the beam weighting vectors(BWVs), and the weighted signals are then summed together. Differenttypes of beams are generated by different BWVs. Multiple simultaneousbeams are generated by parallel processing the same array signals usingdifferent and independent BWVs. Each BWV is associated with a uniquearray aperture distribution, resulting in a unique antenna pattern inthe far field. The beam weighting vectors may include phase correctionfactors, time-delay correction factors, and amplitude correction factorsof unbalanced arrays. Thus, the hardware equalization and beam formingis accomplished in a single arithmetic operation. Similarly, the DBFprocessor may alter the direction of a beam by multiplying the receivedelement signals by different BWVs and then summing the weighted signalstogether. In principle, the BWVs can be altered as often as the signalsampling interval.

The beams created by the DBF processor may be configured so that eachbeam is associated with a GPS satellite currently within the array fieldof view (FOV), and the associated beamwidth may vary from as large asthe entire FOV to a small portion of the FOV. Roughly speaking, theminimum angular coverage of an array of N identical elements, thearray-equivalent beamwidth, is approximately one Nth of the total FOV.Motions of each of the satellites, due either to the orbital motions ofthe satellites or to the motion of the receiving platform, can betracked out by adjusting the beam weighting factors applied by the DBFprocessor in order to steer the beams to follow the angular position ofthe GPS satellites. Alternatively, the DBF processor may create multiplefixed sector beams, each of which points to a fixed location within thefield of view of the aperture. Such beams may be useful for detectingthe location of a desired or undesired signal.

The DBF processor is also able to shape the antenna pattern to createdirectional gain suppression features by appropriately selecting beamweighting vectors to apply to the signals received from each of theelements of the array. In general, by selecting antenna elements thatare spatially separated by a large distance, very deep and narrowsuppressions of the gain pattern can be created. This directionalsuppression can then be steered by the DBF processor to lie on top ofinterfering sources within the array FOV.

The gains of the multiple beams created by the DBF processor also allowfor discrimination between spatially separated sources that may operateat close to the same frequency. In particular, the GPS receiving systemcan discriminate between angularly separated GPS satellites operatingusing different signaling and coding standards, for example, NAVSTAR,Compass, and Galileo. A multi-channel receiver correlates the GPS codesfrom the one or more beams created from the array elements. Thecorrelated codes are then passed to a GPS position processing unit thatextracts time and location data.

Downstream of the DBF processor is an array processor that functions toconnect the beam outputs to proper correlators in a multi-channelreceiver. Several correlators in the multi-channel receiver may beassigned to each beam. Only the codes associated with the GPS satelliteswithin the beam coverage area are available to the correlators assignedto that beam. The combination of a high-gain GPS tracking beam and theunique code assignment to the designated correlators in themulti-channel receiver provides enhanced discrimination ability. Thereceiver will respond only to signals that both arrive from the limitedangular width of the selected beam and have the proper GPS codesignature. As a result, interference from multi-path effects andlow-power smart spoofing sources are significantly reduced.

The GPS receiving system provides a number of methods for finding thelocation of a signal source. First, the receiver may perform a binarysearch by first dividing the array into two half-beams, each looking athalf of the field of view of the aperture. The received signals fromeach half-beam can be independently processed to look for the signal todetermine in which of the two half beams the signal lies. The identifiedhalf beam can then be further subdivided into two quarter beams and theprocess repeated until the direction of the source is known withsufficient accuracy for the application.

Second, the location of a spoofing or interfering GPS source can belocated by forming a number of sub-beams, each of which is configured totrack one of the satellites within the field of view. An analysis of thedata from all of the GPS sources can be performed to obtain referencelocation information. Then, the sub beam pointing at a particular sourcecan be turned off or otherwise removed from the multi-channel receiver,and the location analysis can be repeated. This process can then berepeated for each of the GPS sources in turn, and the results of thelocation analysis can be compared to determine which of the beamscontains the spoofing GPS signal. If multiple interfering sources arepresent, this method can be repeated, turning off two of the GPS sourcesat a time to find the interferers.

The ability to effectively point the array and to create sub-beamsdepends on the accuracy of a calibration process designed to determinebeam weighting factors to be applied to each of the elements of thearray for a particular pointing direction. Such calibrations can beparticularly challenging for non-planar arrays in which antenna elementsare located in different planes and may be oriented in differentdirections. A method in accordance with the present invention solvesthis problem. A signal generating unit with an associated antenna isplaced in the far field of the array to be calibrated in a laboratory ortest-range setting. The signal generator is configured to transmit acoded acquisition sequence. The calibration signal is received by theelements of the array, and a correlator is used to synchronize with arecorded coded acquisition sequence including a time reference todetermine the range to each of the antenna elements. Alternatively, thesignal from one of the array elements may be selected as a referencesource. The signal from each of the remaining array elements may then becross correlated with the selected reference source, taking into accountthe range variation information and the unbalanced amplitudes and phases(or biases) among the multiple RF channels, to calculate the proper beamweighting vectors required to achieve a coherent sum of all the elementsfor the chosen calibration position. These beam weighting factors aresaved in the array processor memory, and a new location is selected forthe calibration source. The process is repeated for a number ofdifferent calibration source angles to create a set of beam weightvectors associated with each element for each array pointing angle.Angles between the points that are calibrated can be determined byinterpolation, and the number of measured points will depend on therequired accuracy of the pointing for the particular application.

From the foregoing discussion, it should be clear to those skilled inthe art that certain advantages of an advanced multiple beam GPSreceiving system have been achieved. Further advantages and applicationsof the invention will become clear to those skilled in the art byexamination of the following detailed description of the preferredembodiment. Reference will be made to the attached sheets of drawingthat will first be described briefly.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts the relative time that a GPS satellite crossing localzenith will spend at various elevation angles;

FIG. 2 illustrates the operation of a multi-beam receiving aperture inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 3 illustrates a conformal, non-planar, multi-beam receivingaperture mounted on the surface of an aircraft, in accordance with thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 depicts a block diagram of a multi-beam GPS receiving system inaccordance with the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a laboratory or test-range calibrationsystem for a non-planar multi-beam GPS receiving system in accordancewith the present invention; and

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of beam shaping using a GPS receivingsystem in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

The invention provides an advanced multi-beam GPS receiving system thatis capable of detecting multiple interference signals and suppressinggain in the antenna pattern in the interference directions. In thedetailed description that follows, like element numerals are used toindicate like elements appearing in one or more of the figures.

FIG. 1 illustrates that GPS constellation satellites tend to spend themajority of time relatively low on the horizon, from the point of viewof an observer, either on the ground or on an airborne platform. Inparticular, the relative time spent 104 at a particular elevation angle102 is plotted with respect to the time spent within five degrees ofzenith 106, which is normalized to one. For example, bin 108 illustratesthat the time a satellite is observed within five degrees of atwenty-five-degree elevation angle is approximately 20% greater than thetime spent near zenith, for a satellite that passes through localzenith. For satellites that do not pass directly overhead, the visibleduration at low elevation angles is even more pronounced, illustratingthe inefficiency of conventional GPS antennas that are largelyomni-directional.

FIG. 2, by contrast, illustrates a beam pattern produced by anembodiment of a GPS receiving system in accordance with the presentinvention. An aperture 202 comprising multiple antenna array elements(not shown) is organized by a DBF processor to form multiplesimultaneous beams, each capable of viewing a GPS satellite, e.g., 204,simultaneously. With a non-planer conformal aperture, not all arrayelements will view all GPS satellites in the sky due to blockage of theaperture itself. However, the more elements of the non-planer conformalarray that can view a GPS satellite 204 at a given time, the moreantenna gain toward the satellite direction the array will providethrough the beam forming process. As the satellite and/or the userplatform move, some of the array elements may become blocked, butadditional elements may become available. An array processorautomatically selects a new set of elements to form a beam pointing inthe new direction to track the moving satellite. FIG. 2 illustrates sixsuch beams, e.g., 206, formed to track the individual GPS satellites,e.g., 204, within view of the aperture 202. Two of the beams in thisexample are subject to strong interference sources 208 and 210 thatwould normally have a devastating affect on the ability of the receiverto extract position data from the constellation. However, by shaping thebeams to place deep, narrow gain suppression features in the directionof the interfering sources, the receiver is able to provide each beam,e.g., 206, with a strong directional selection capability that canovercome the interference.

With respect to the directional gain suppression features, the arrayresolution capability, rather than the array gain, becomes the dominantdesign consideration. The depth of the gain suppression feature isrelated primarily to the accuracy of phase and amplitude weightingperformed in the DBF processor, and the angular width is related to themaximum element spacing, or baseline, projected normal to direction ofthe interfering signal, where the baseline is defined as the distancebetween the two outermost elements selected for arraying. It should benoted that the array elements selected to form a given beam need not becontiguous. The array processor thus acts to select elements thatproduce the maximum baseline on a projected plane normal to theinterference direction.

FIG. 3 presents an example of a conformal, non-planar receiving aperturein accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. In this case,the aperture comprises spatially separated array portions conformallymounted on the surface of an aircraft 302. For example, some arrayelements are located on the wing 304, others on the nose 306, others onthe top 308 of the aircraft, and others on the tail 310. In the figure,the formation of beams in two different directions, 312 and 314,corresponding to directions in which two GPS satellites are located, isillustrated. The satellite in the direction of 312 is not visible fromthe array elements 306 mounted on the nose of the aircraft. Thus,elements from the wing 304, the top 308, and the tail 310 are used toconstruct the beam pointing in that direction. Similarly, the satellitein direction 314 is not visible from the elements located on the tail310. Thus, the beam in that direction is formed from elements on thewing 304, the nose 306, and the top 308 of the aircraft. As the aircraftand the GPS satellites move, the array processor selects array elementsto combine in order to account for changing fields of view. Of course,any number of array elements may be placed on any surface of an aircraftor other structure and still fall within the spirit and scope of thepresent invention.

FIG. 4 is a simplified block diagram of a multibeam GPS receiving systemin accordance with the present invention. Antenna array elements 402receive GPS signals that are then amplified by low-noise amplifiers(LNAs), e.g. 404, and frequency down-converted e.g., 406, and thenprocessed by a digital beam forming (DBF) processor 408. The DBFprocessor adjusts amplitude and phase of the incoming signals by aweight-and-sum process. The weighting step comprises individuallymultiplying the signals from each element by a complex weightingcoefficient. The complex weighting coefficient applied to each signalproperly adjusts the amplitude and phase of the signal on a per-samplebasis to compensate for the path differences among the elements for adesired beam direction. The weighted signals from each element from asource at the selected beam direction are thus brought into coherence.When the weighted signals are added, radiated power from sources nearthe selected direction will add party coherently, and power from sourcesfar from the desired direction will add incoherently. Thus, theweight-and-sum process is a dot product of two vectors: the signalvector consists of the set of signals received by the individualreceiving elements, and the beam weighting vector consists of thecomplex weighting coefficients representing the required amplitude andphase, or I/Q adjustments needed to create a beam in the selecteddirection.

In order to form multiple simultaneous beams looking in differentdirections, multiple beam weighting vectors (BWVs) are used to formmultiple dot products with the same received signal vector. All arrayelements can be combined to form a single low-gain beam covering theentire field of view (FOV), or multiple high-gain beams pointed invarious directions, each covering only a fraction of the entire FOV. Thearray processor may also select groups of elements to be combined toform various beams simultaneously. The array processor 412 may instructthe DBF 408 to use adaptive array processing algorithms that associatean appropriate weighting factor with each of the processed beam outputsbefore summing them. This provides beam shaping capability by allowingdeep gain suppression features to be formed in the antenna pattern inthe directions of interfering signals. The array processor 412 thenroutes the DBF beam outputs to selected correlators within themultichannel receiver 414 that runs correlations with the GPS satellitesin the array FOV. A GPS receiver 418 then generates location informationfrom the received correlated signals.

In order to reject interfering signals, the array processor 412 mustfirst determine from which the direction the undesired signal isarriving. This is done by performing an iterative spatial search bytaking advantage of the beam forming capabilities of the array 402 andthe digital beam forming processor 408. For example, an undesired signalthat is affecting one of the GPS constellation satellites may cause theposition processor 416 to fail. The array processor 412 may instruct theDBF 408 to create two beams, each covering half of the sky. Thesatellites viewed by each of these half-coverage beams would becorrelated to obtain GPS location information. If the signals from oneof the half-beams failed to correlate or produced inconsistent results,the location of the interference would be isolated to that half beam.This region could then be further subdivided into quarter beams, andstill further, until a precise pointing location of the interference isfound.

Another method of locating undesired or interfering sources inaccordance with the present invention is to create multiple spot beams,each tracking an individual satellite within the field of view. Forexample, six spot beams might be created by grouping elements of thearray, and each could be steered to one of six available constellationsatellites (see FIG. 2). Then one of the beams, e.g., 206, could beturned off, and navigation information acquired by analyzing the signalsfrom the remaining five satellites. The sixth beam could then be turnedback on and a different one turned off. This process would be repeatedto obtain six separate measurements of the navigation data. By examiningthe measurements for consistency, the effect of dropping each satelliteindividually can be determined, and the signal subject to the undesiredinterference can be determined. The identified source can then be markedin the receiving system, and signals from this source can be suppressed,for example, by shaping the array pattern to minimize gain in thatdirection. Of course, other spatial search methods could also be usedbased on the ability of the DBF 408 to combine array elements 402 toform various radiating and receiving patterns, and these methods wouldalso fall within the scope and spirit of the present invention.

Once the direction of the interfering source is found, its effect can beseverely suppressed by shaping the array pattern to minimize gain inthat direction. The depth of the gain suppression feature and its widthare governed primarily by the spacing of the array elements. Thus, thearray processor 412 selects elements that are maximally spaced in thedirection of a plane normal to the interference direction. The signalsreceived by these elements are then weighted and summed in order tomaintain array gain in the direction of the desired signal whileminimizing gain in the direction of the interfering signals. By thismethod, suppression ratios of over 50 dB can be obtained. With properarray geometries, the array processor can instruct the DBF to suppressthe effects of close-in mainlobe interferences. The extent to which thenearby desired signal is affected depends on the array angularresolution, which in turn depends on how far apart the selected arrayelements are.

Both beam forming and pattern shaping are accomplished by applyingweighting vectors, which can be derived by forming cross-correlationsbetween the elements of the aperture. In a planar array where all of theelements are evenly spaced and have the same field of view, crosscorrelations among the elements becomes a simple one-dimensional matrix.For a more general array that may be irregular and non-planar, the crosscorrelation is a two-dimensional matrix. The array must be calibrated inorder to determine the proper weight factors to apply to the antennaarray elements in order to steer the beams. FIG. 5 illustrates thiscalibration process for an embodiment of a GPS receiving system inaccordance with the present invention. The calibration procedure isperformed once after the array elements have been mounted in their finalconfiguration. For example, an array comprising elements conformallymounted onto surfaces of an aircraft could be calibrated in situ in theaircraft hangar (see FIG. 3).

The goal of the calibration process is to measure the beam weightvectors for the aperture associated with spot beams at differentbeam-pointing directions. These beam weight vectors are the output 520of a correlator 516 that cross-correlates the measured signals, 522 and524, from all of the array elements, e.g. 506, of the aperture for agiven beam pointing direction. The signal from each element, e.g., 506,is received by a low-noise amplifier (LNA), 508, is frequencydown-converted 510, and digitized by an analog-to-digital converter(ADC) 512. The digital data is collected over a PCI interface 514, andsent to a PC 518. The PC then delivers measured signal data to across-correlator 516. Of course, interfaces known in the art other thanPCI may also be used, and general purpose processors, DSP systems,dedicated hardware processors, or other processing systems known in theart may be used instead of a PC to process the array data.

A signal generator 502 and its associated antenna 504 are placed atnumerous locations in the far field of the aperture. For each positionto be measured, the received signals from one element, e.g, S₁, is takenas a reference. This signal is cross-correlated 516 with all of theother signals 522 in order to calculate the proper weighting vectors 520that compensate for the path-length differences among the array elementswith respect to signals from a desired direction, making all of theweighted signals sum together in phase. Note that this alignment ofphase vectors can be performed despite the fact that the apertureelements, e.g., 506, may not be coplanar or oriented in the samedirection: the calibration method takes advantage of a coding sequenceto essentially add an additional constraint to the phasing algorithm.The sequence-coded signals are broadcast by the signal generator 502,and a simple receiver 526 in the calibration system measures rangeinformation with respect to the location of the signal generator bysynchronizing to the coded sequence by methods well known in the art.This measurement allows the variation in range resulting from thenon-planar nature of the aperture elements, and the unbalanced channelamplitudes and phases, to be compensated for in the calculation of theweight vectors. The correlating vectors can subsequently be used toderive the beam weight vector (BWV) for a spot beam that incorporatesboth the phase gradients of a given spot beam and the associatedunbalanced bias among the multiple RF channels of the DBF array. Sets ofBWVs, corresponding to more beam positions than the number of arrayelements, can then be used to derive and separate out the contributionsof RF electronics bias and those of aperture phase progression. Withthis information, new BWVs can be calculated to create either full-arrayor partial-array spot beams, shaped beams, or beams with deeplysuppressed directional gain in the direction of specified undesiredsignals.

It should be noted that in the case of non-planar arrays, the field ofview of some elements may be obscured by structural elements of theantenna for certain beam directions. These elements thus cannot be usedto form a beam in this direction, and they must be eliminated from thecross correlation for calculation of beam weighting vectors for thisdirection. Thus, the calibration algorithm will set a received signalthreshold above which an element will be involved in the correlationprocess.

For large arrays operated over a large bandwidth, both time delay andphase rotation must be taken into account for beam forming and patternshaping. However, the number of elements in GPS receiver arrays tends tobe less than fifteen or so, the maximum spacing is generally less thanabout ten wavelengths, and the signal bandwidths tend to be less than10%. With such constraints, phase rotation compensation alone in thedetermination of element weights will generally be sufficient for theGPS beam forming process. However, the time delays for large movingplatforms can also be equalized using the same techniques with advancedsignal processing methods known in the art such asFinite-Impulse-Response (FIR) filtering.

FIG. 6 depicts an example of directional gain suppression features inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention using a simpleantenna comprising two patch elements. A null in the radiation patternat a particular angle is generated by weighting and summing the signalsfrom the two patch elements. In FIG. 6, the radiation intensity in dB isplotted along the vertical axis 602 as a function of the angle indegrees from vertical, which is plotted along the horizontal axis 604.Each radiating patch in this example has a size of λ/4, where λ iswavelength of the radiated signal. The boresite gain of each patch is 3dB, and the two elements are spaced by a distance of λ/2. Each of thefifteen traces plotted in the figure and listed in the key 606corresponds to a different set of weighting factors applied to the twoelements. In this example, only the phase of the signals are adjusted,although more generally, both amplitude and phase may be adjusted. Thenull is swept from the trace 608 at −35 degrees to the trace 610 at +35degrees by varying the relative phase between the signals from the tworadiating elements as they are summed. At the finite grid spacing ofthis example, the null depth extends beyond 30 dB. However, with10-bit-precision weighting factors, the depth of the calculated nullsare more than 50 dB.

In this example, the width of the null, defined as 5 dB below theasymptotic level and indicated as element 612, is about thirty degrees.Thus, an interfering source located 15 degrees from a GPS satellite andhaving an interference to signal ratio of 1/1 could be suppressed by 25dB relative to the desired GPS signal by properly suppressing the gainof the array in the direction of the interference, even with this simple2-element system. In general, as the separation between array elementsis made larger, the angular width of the gain suppression features willdecrease.

Another embodiment of a GPS receiver system in accordance with thepresent invention enables the simultaneous use of multiple independentspace-based navigation systems such as the proposed Galileo or Compasssystems. The aperture can be used to form multiple beams for multiplesystems simultaneously. Each beam may track an individual satellite ormultiple satellites from different systems. Of course, the frequency ofoperation of the various systems must lie within the operating bandwidthof the aperture. The system may utilize all available space assets, thusproviding better availability and improving the integrity of positionand timing measurement. Alternatively, the advanced multiple-beam GPSantenna may be configured to operate using one space-based navigationsystem only, remaining completely isolated from the other systems thatuse the same waveforms and the same frequency band.

Thus, an advanced GPS receiving system that is capable of generatingmultiple beams simultaneously and dynamically detecting and suppressingmultiple interference signals is achieved. Those skilled in the art willlikely recognize further advantages of the present invention, and itshould be appreciated that various modifications, adaptations, andalternative embodiments thereof may be made within the scope and spiritof the present invention. The invention is further defined by thefollowing claims.

1. A global positioning system (GPS) receiver comprising: a plurality ofantenna elements adapted to receive signals from a plurality of GPSsatellites, wherein the plurality of antenna elements is configured asan array that is not contained within a single plane; at least onefrequency down-converter connected to the plurality of antenna elementsand adapted to down-convert the signals from the plurality of antennaelements to at least one of an intermediate frequency and a basebandfrequency to form a plurality of down-converted signals; a multi-channelreceiver comprising a plurality of correlators adapted to correlate theplurality of down-converted signals to form a plurality of correlatedsignals; a GPS-position-processing unit connected to the multi-channelreceiver and adapted to extract time and position data from theplurality of correlated signals; a memory element adapted to storecalibration data comprising beam weighting vectors associated with onesof the plurality of antenna elements; wherein the beam weighting vectorscomprising the calibration data each comprise: at least one of a phasecorrection factor, a time-delay correction factor, and an amplitudecorrection factor, wherein the at least one correction factor iscalculated from a measurement by the plurality of antenna elements of aradio-frequency signal source placed in at least one known locationrelative to the plurality of antenna elements; a digital beam forming(DBF) processor adapted to: apply the beam weighting vectors to theplurality of down-converted signals to form a plurality of weighteddown-converted signals; selectively combine ones of the plurality ofweighted down-converted signals; form at least one coherent beam from acombination of ones of the plurality of weighted down-converted signalswherein the at least one coherent beam comprises a shaped beamconfigured to receive signals from more than one of the plurality of GPSsatellites from which any of the plurality of antenna elements isreceiving a signal; and form at least one directional gain suppressionfeature from a combination of ones of the plurality of weighteddown-converted signals; and an array processor adapted to: dynamicallyselect ones of the plurality of antenna elements from which signals aresent to the DBF processor; dynamically alter the beam weighting vectorsto change a pointing direction of the at least one coherent beam;dynamically assign the plurality of down-converted signals associatedwith the at least one coherent beam to corresponding ones of theplurality of correlators in the multi-channel receiver; and dynamicallyalter the beam weighting vectors to change an angular position of the atleast one directional gain suppression feature.
 2. The GPS receiver ofclaim 1, wherein the at least one coherent beam formed by the DBFprocessor comprises a single beam that is formed from a combination ofall of the plurality of antenna elements.
 3. The GPS receiver of claim1, wherein the at least one coherent beam formed by the DBF processorcomprises multiple composite beams wherein each of the multiplecomposite beams is configured to receive signals from at least one ofthe plurality of GPS satellites.
 4. The GPS receiver of claim 1, whereinthe at least one coherent beam formed by the DBF processor comprises adynamic composite shaped beam configured to receive signals from all ofthe plurality of GPS satellites from which any of the plurality ofantenna elements is receiving a signal.
 5. The GPS receiver of claim 1,wherein the at least one coherent beam formed by the array processorcomprises a dynamic composite shaped beam configured to receive signalsfrom all except one of the plurality of GPS satellites from which any ofthe plurality of antenna elements is receiving a signal.
 6. The GPSreceiver of claim 1, wherein the at least one coherent beam formed bythe DBF processor comprises at least one fixed-sector beam adapted toview a fixed angular region.
 7. The GPS receiver of claim 1, wherein themulti-channel receiver and the GPS position processing unit are adaptedto process navigation data from more than one GPS signal standard.
 8. Aglobal positioning system (GPS) receiver comprising: a plurality ofantenna elements adapted to receive signals from a plurality of GPSsatellites, wherein the plurality of antenna elements is configured as aconformal receiving array that is not contained within a single plane;at least one frequency down-converter connected to the plurality ofantenna elements and adapted to down-convert the signals from theplurality of antenna elements to at least one of an intermediatefrequency and a baseband frequency to form a plurality of down-convertedsignals; a multi-channel receiver comprising a plurality of correlatorsadapted to correlate the plurality of down-converted signals to create aplurality of correlated signals; a GPS-position-processing unitconnected to the multi-channel receiver and adapted to extract time andposition data from the plurality of correlated signals; a memory elementadapted to store calibration data comprising beam weighting vectorsassociated with ones of the plurality of antenna elements wherein thebeam weighting vectors comprising the calibration data each comprise: atleast one of a phase correction factor, a time-delay correction factor,and an amplitude correction factor, wherein the at least one correctionfactor is calculated from a measurement by the plurality of antennaelements of a radio-frequency signal source placed in at least one knownlocation relative to the plurality of antenna elements; a digital beamforming (DBF) processor adapted to: apply the beam weighting factors tothe plurality of down-converted signals to form a plurality of weighteddown-converted signals; selectively combine ones of the plurality ofweighted down-converted signals; create a plurality of coherent beamsfrom combinations of ones of the plurality of weighted down-convertedsignals; and further form at least one directional gain suppressionfeature from a combination of ones of the plurality of weighteddown-converted signals; and dynamically alter the beam weighting vectorsto change an angular position of the at least one directional gainsuppression feature; and an array processor adapted to: dynamicallyselect ones of the plurality of antenna elements from which signals aresent to the DBF processor; associate ones of the plurality of coherentbeams with corresponding ones of the plurality of GPS satellites;dynamically alter the beam weighting factors to cause the plurality ofcoherent beams to track corresponding ones of the plurality of GPSsatellites; associate the at least one directional gain suppressionfeature with an interfering source; and dynamically alter the beamweighting vectors to change an angular position of the at least onedirectional gain suppression feature to cause it to track theinterfering source.
 9. The GPS receiver of claim 8, wherein themulti-channel receiver and the GPS position processing unit are adaptedto process navigation data from more than one GPS signal standard.